


the library's alarm clock

by vascool



Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-17
Updated: 2016-05-17
Packaged: 2018-06-08 23:59:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 722
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6880858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vascool/pseuds/vascool
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>a short fic inspired by tumblr user quoth-the-ravenclaw's library au post<br/>we all need our beauty sleep one way or another</p>
            </blockquote>





	the library's alarm clock

It was getting late, and she was growing more impatient. She had been interning for the library for some time, and a particular patron had been coming in rather often lately. Normally she would dismiss him as just an active reader, but he would stay to foul hours of the night pouring over dusty old books, the ones no one else ever really cared to read. In most cases the librarians working there would tell the young man it was near closing time, and then he would nod foggy-headedly and walk on out without taking a single book with him.  
  
Tonight however, he had fallen asleep while reading some book, probably relating to conspiracy theories or ancient mythology. Those were the ones he read most often, she knew this solely because of the number of times he’d been in the library. It was fascinating how much one could learn about another only from their reading tastes. The two of them had not shared even a snippet of conversation and yet she knew his primary interests and sense of humor. When he forgot to put the books away before leaving, she would have to restock the shelves, and in the process of this, she would always skim over the blurb. Aliens, mysterious phenomena, government cover-ups, ancient mythos that she seriously doubted anyone ever had believed; those were some of his favorite topics to dwell over for hours at a time. She also noted that he would ponder over some truly great philosophical works, such as the Far Side comics.  
  
Most of the librarians had gone home, except for two of the head librarians who were apparently infatuated with one another and just had to have their long lasting talks just before closing time. She was going to have to wake him up, thereby breaking their unstated vow of silence. She was pretty apathetic about that, though; she just wanted to go home and maybe watch late night comedy shows and munch on some popcorn.  
  
Having developed a respectable reason to wake him up, she marched on over, and began collecting the books he had amassed over the course of what was probably five hours. After she had them gathered up into a stack, she picked them up and then dropped them back down onto the table with a thud. In a knee-jerk reaction, the man leaped back, pushing the chair he still sat in away from the table. His hair was wild and stuck up all over, and the dark circles under his eyes gave her an insight into his reasoning behind falling asleep in a public library. “Morning.” She said with an apologetic tone in her voice. He looked like hell, and she almost felt bad for waking him.  
He furrowed his brow, blinking several times in what seemed to be an attempt to get those pesky purple-blue spots from his vision. “Have I really been out that long?” he asked her, pausing to scan the walls of the room for a clock. She prayed that he wasn’t one of those people who acted like total assholes when you woke them up. He spoke again, his voice a drowsy drawl; “Seems like everyone decent decided to head on home to get some shut-eye.”  
  
“You’d better head out too - it’s closing time, and besides, we wouldn’t want our best late-night subscriber to miss out on his beauty sleep.”  
  
“You have to take lots of naps to keep this sort of face looking pretty, some of us aren’t as well-endowed, miss intern,” he replied, reading off her name tag with a stupid grin on his face. “Do you have the time?”  
  
“It’s 11:25.” The library actually closed an hour and twenty-five minutes earlier, but she had some tidying up to do, and definitely wasn’t about to interrupt the other two, who seemed to think they got paid to chitchat. He wasn’t hurting anything, just sleeping there for a bit.  
  
“Thanks for the extra hour of sleep.” He said, and she nodded, but said nothing more as she began to pick up the stack of unique books he had studied this night. He set a hand on top of the pile, pinning them to the table. “I’d actually like to check these out tonight.”  
  
Goddamn it. She’d already arranged them by Dewey decimal number.


End file.
